Dreams and Changes
by Angel In Disguise2
Summary: This is kinda a CSI/Boy Meets World story. Grissom's daughter, Warrick's niece, and Nick's cousin work together with Shawn Hunter, Eric Matthews and Jack Hunter to solve a murder case, but things happen...
1. Introduction: Goodbye My Friend

Disclaimer: Do I own Boy Meets World or CSI, or any of the characters in them? How about no? I wish I did...cuz then I'd have Eric, Shawn and Warrick be my personal sex slaves. Hell yeah! Sounds like I have a great plan going on there! The only characters I own are the ones that loyal BMW and CSI watchers like myself won't recognize (a.k.a. Kendall Grissom, Christina Stokes and Sapphire Brown), got it? Good.  
  
Quick look at the synopsis: Grissom's daughter, Kendall, Warrick's niece, Sapphire and Nick's cousin, Christina find out that having relatives who are CSI's isn't all it's cracked up to be. When someone they know and love is killed, Kendall, Shawn Hunter, Sapphire, Eric Matthews, Christina and Jack Hunter get deep into a crime scene and into more trouble than they could ever imagine.  
  
Intro: Goodbye My Friend  
  
Kendall Grissom glanced into the cold, silent funeral home. "I hate these things!" she told her best friend, Sapphire Brown. "I mean, I know I should be used to seeing people post-mortem, cuz dad wants me to be a CSI and all, but it's just something that's not easy to see..."  
  
"I know...my uncle keeps showing me this stuff, hoping that I'll become interested, but I don't think so! Man, the only good thing that came out of this whole CSI thing was the day that Uncle Warrick brought me to work, and I met you..." Sapphire pushed her brown hair out of her eyes.  
  
Kendall looked at all the black clothing. "It looks like a creepy goth movie in there..."  
  
"You're starting to sound like your dad..." Sapphire shuddered.  
  
"Oh, God...I did, didn't I?" Kendall shuddered too. "At least their faces aren't like, pale-white..." she shrugged. "That'd be just plain freaky..."  
  
"Shall we go in?" Sapphire asked.  
  
"It's better than standing out here..." Kendall nodded. "Not by much, but better, yes..."  
  
"You are so your father's daughter..." Sapphire laughed.  
  
"You say that to me again, I rip your tongue out..." Kendall's eyes narrowed.  
  
"Fine, fine..." Sapphire grinned. "Let's go in...there are two seats by Christina, Topanga and Cory..."  
  
"Ok..." Kendall followed Sapphire into the funeral home.  
  
Just as Kendall and Sapphire took their seats, someone stood up in front of the crowd at the funeral home. It was Sara Sidle, one of Grissom, Nick and Warrick's fellow CSI's, and, someone Kendall, Christina and Sapphire knew very well. She knew it was bad when she entered the room.  
  
"Uh...I've just gotten wind that Stuart Minkus' death may not have been an accident..." Sara informed all the mourners. "We think it might be a murder..."  
  
Gasps and sobs rang throughout the room. Kendall, Sapphire and Christina exchanged shocked glances, and looked up at Sara.  
  
Sara continued. "Rest assured that all the top Investigators will be on this case, and the killer will be found..."  
  
"In other words..." Christina whispered. "Grissom, Warrick, Uncle Nick, Catherine and her, or any combination of the five..."  
  
Kendall and Sapphire nodded. "And us..." they added. 


	2. Chapter One: Who's With Me?

(AN: I know CSI is in Las Vegas, but for now, I'm changing it to Philadelphia, ok? I thought so!)  
  
Kendall glanced over at the alarm clock. It was five-thirty in the morning. Another horrid day of school, about to begin. Oh, how she longed for summer vacation. But, it was her senior year. She was almost done. Then it was off with Cory, Shawn, Christina and Topanga to Pennbrook to join Eric, Jack and Sapphire. She looked forward to that tremendously. She slid out of bed, and toward the bathroom, only to find her father was in there. "Hurry up, dad...I need to get ready for school!"  
  
"Ok, sorry, hun..." Gil Grissom hollered through the door to Kendall. "I'm leaving for work in a few minutes..." he stated, opening the door.  
  
"Oh, ok..." Kendall's brain suddenly turned on. "So, dad...found out anything about the Stuart Minkus case, yet?"  
  
"Kendall, hun...you know I can't share anything with you...especially since you went to school with him..." Gil kissed his daughter's forehead. "Rumors would be flying!"  
  
"Fine..." Kendall griped. 'I'll just have to find out on my own...Sapph and Chris will help me!' she thought, going into the bathroom. "Ugh, dad! It's called air freshener!"  
  
"Sorry, hun..." Gil laughed, grabbing a piece of toast on his way to the door. "I'll remember that next time...see you tonight..."  
  
"Bye, dad..." Kendall yelled down the stairs. "I'll check for evidence files after I take a shower and get dressed..." she told herself.  
  
~~  
  
After she had changed, Kendall walked into her father's room, and started rummaging through his work files. "E. Miller, O. Milles...S. Milles, AH...here we go...S. Minkus..." she pulled out the file, but then looked at the clock, and saw that she was already late for school. She shoved the file into her backpack, and ran to her car.  
  
~~  
  
"Hey guys!" Kendall ran over to Shawn Hunter, one of her closest friends, and Christina. "Guess what I have?"  
  
"No life?" Christina asked.  
  
"A very large head?" Shawn grinned. He had always had a thing for Kendall, he just had yet to mention it to anyone. He had known her since she was five, when he threw a worm in her hair, and she kicked him in the kneecap.  
  
"Are you getting married?" Christina jumped up and down.  
  
"I think my head is very average sized, thank you, Shawn, and yes, Christina I DO have a life, and I'm NOT getting married!" Kendall put a hand on her hip. "Maybe, just for that, I won't show you..." she stuck her tongue out.  
  
"Oh, come on, Kendall! Don't leave us hanging!" Shawn flashed a grin that had always had the ability to make Kendall melt.  
  
"I'll show you guys later...I think Sapph will wanna see it too..." Kendall walked away, and toward Mr. Feeny's history class.  
  
"See ya later, Christina..." he looked at Christina, who was headed toward Cory and Topanga. "Hey, Kendall, wait up!" he ran to catch up to her.  
  
"What's up?" Kendall looked back at Shawn.  
  
"What is it that you have, that you don't want to show us yet?" Shawn asked.  
  
"If I didn't want to show you ten seconds ago, what makes you think I'll wanna show you now?" she asked, winking.  
  
"Because I'm special?" Shawn winked back.  
  
"No you're not!" Kendall joked. "I'll show you later, ok?"  
  
"Ok, ok..." Shawn whined. "But I'm not gonna be all too excited!"  
  
"Believe me, you will..." Kendall nodded.  
  
~~  
  
Shawn, Kendall, Sapphire, Christina, Cory, Topanga and a couple other friends, Eric Matthews (Eric was Cory's brother, and Sapphire's boyfriend. Eric and Kendall had once dated, but that ended on a very friendly note. They decided together that it was going to ruin their friendship, and went their separate ways.) and Jack Hunter (who was Shawn's brother, and Christina's boyfriend.), were all gathered at Kendall's house.  
  
"So, what's the big thing that we all had to be here for?" Topanga asked.  
  
"Who here wants to play detective with me?" Kendall inquired, with a grin.  
  
"Detective? What?" Sapphire was taken aback.  
  
"After all your 'I'm not like my dad' speeches, you wanna play detective?" Christina snickered.  
  
"Oh, irony of all ironies..." Shawn chuckled.  
  
"It doesn't surprise me..." Eric laughed. "I've always known she was supposed to be in Mystery Inc. with Scooby Doo and stuff..." he was his normal Eric self.  
  
Kendall rolled her eyes. "Are you all done yet?"  
  
"We haven't gotten a turn!" Cory referred to himself and Jack. "Maybe that means...uh..."  
  
"Cory...there are really no jokes left..." Jack shook his head.  
  
"Ok, NOW are we all done?" Kendall asked.  
  
"Yes, Kendall, go ahead..." Sapphire pulled her hair into a ponytail.  
  
"Here's the deal..." Kendall sat in her chair, and turned off the TV.  
  
"Hey!" Cory whined. "I was watching that!"  
  
"Shut up..." Topanga elbowed Cory. "Let her talk!"  
  
"Fine!" Cory paid attention to Kendall.  
  
"Ok, I'm gonna investigate the Minkus murder..." Kendall started, but again she was interrupted.  
  
"Minkus murder? That's kinda catchy..." Jack laughed.  
  
"Shut UP!" Christina smacked Jack. "You sound morbid!"  
  
"OK! Let me TALK!" Kendall shouted. "I'm gonna investigate the STUART murder, and I'm gonna need some help...who's with me...?"  
  
Cory, Topanga, Christina and Jack went silent.  
  
"Awesome! I'll help!" Shawn nodded.  
  
"That seemed a little too eager..." Sapphire laughed at Shawn's enthusiasm. "I'll help...you know I will."  
  
"Me too!" Eric grinned. "It'll be like Mystery Inc.! I can be Shaggy...we need a dog though..."  
  
"Eric...breathe...what about you guys?" Kendall shifted her attention to the others.  
  
"Uh...I don't know, Kendall..." Christina shook her head. "I see how much trouble...ah, who am I kidding? Of course I will!"  
  
"I guess I will, too..." Jack nodded.  
  
"Great!" Kendall grinned. "What about you guys?" she asked Cory and Topanga.  
  
"Um...no thanks...this whole CSI thing is not for us..." Cory spoke for them both. "Right, honey?"  
  
"Exactly..." Topanga nodded in agreement. "I'm sorry, Kendall. I mean, if it wasn't so dangerous..."  
  
"Oh, don't worry, I understand totally!" Kendall nodded back in understanding. "I didn't want to at first, but I figured dad might need a bit of extra help...the department has been moving a little slow lately..." she pushed some of her blonde hair from her face.  
  
Topanga was relieved. She didn't want to get into any danger, and nor did she want Cory to. "Maybe we should get going then?" she asked.  
  
"It's probably a good idea..." Kendall said softly, not wanting to offend a friend.  
  
*  
  
Hey! Please review this! This is my first CSI story...I've written a few Boy Meets World ones, but combining the 2 is no easy task...be patient with me LOL. Ciaoness for now! 


	3. Chapter Two: The Investigation Begins

"What do you mean, your father passed that over?" Sapphire asked, appalled that such a detail had been passed over by Gil Grissom, who had always been a perfectionist. "The HYPERCRITICAL Gil Grissom passed a detail over..."  
  
"Sapph...it's not unheard of, you know?" Kendall asked, looking up from the folder on the table, and over the top of her glasses at Sapphire. "My dad may be a great CSI, but he's no Horatio Caine..." she said, referring to a Miami CSI that her father had worked with, whose work had wowed her deeply.  
  
"So, now we know other state's CSI's names?" Christina asked, annoyed.  
  
"Girls...do we want to solve Minkus' case or what?" Shawn asked, also getting annoyed, but not only by Kendall, by all of the girls together.  
  
"So sorry, Mr. Impatient!" Kendall, Sapphire and Christina grumbled to Shawn in unison.  
  
"So, what's this mondo detail that Mr. Scrupulous looked over?" Jack asked, peering over Christina's shoulder at the file.  
  
Kendall shot Jack a glance that obviously meant 'don't talk about my father like that, damn you!' and then, showed him the file. "The body was found here, but their only suspect is Frankie Staccino...and he was at the poetry club meeting, remember, Sapph?"  
  
"Oh yeah! He read this great piece he wrote...I was amazed!" Sapphire got off topic again.  
  
"Sapphire, come on..." Kendall glared at her best friend.  
  
"We need to clear Frankie's name, but do it inconspicuously..." Christina looked pensively at the clock.  
  
"But what if his alibi doesn't clear? I mean, what if he wasn't there...we need SOMETHING to prove he didn't do it..." Kendall nodded, pushing her glasses back up to where they're supposed to be, and adjusting them so they'd stay. "Cause I KNOW he didn't..."  
  
"I really feel like Shaggy right now, because I have no idea what any of you are talking about..." Eric nodded. "I know Frankie, and I know what happened, but I'm getting lost quickly..."  
  
"Can you explain it to him, Sapph? You're the only one who can make things out into Eric terminology..." Kendall chuckled.  
  
Sapphire nodded, and walked over to Eric, to describe the situation.  
  
Kendall thought. "We actually need to do something...we can't just sit here and let them accuse Frankie! We know he didn't do it!" she looked at Shawn, hoping he'd agree with her.  
  
Shawn had been waiting for action. He didn't want to just sit there and look at papers all day. "Definitely!"  
  
"Here's my plan...Christina and Jack...you guys take this..." Kendall handed Jack her father's case file. "And go to your house...look it over, and call me ON MY CELL if you find any details. Don't call me here...cuz if my dad sees..."  
  
"Ok, we get it..." Christina nodded.  
  
"Eric and Sapphire...you guys go talk to Frankie...ok? Don't tell him anything about investigating, cuz he'll get freaked out..." Kendall directed.  
  
"Got ya..." Sapphire grinned at Eric. "I'm really getting into this!"  
  
"Me too!" Eric beamed.  
  
"Shawn...you and I can go check the crime scene out after my dad gets home, ok?" Kendall told Shawn. "We'll just hang here until then..."  
  
"Ok..." Shawn smiled. He wondered if he and Kendall would actually be doing this as a living someday. He pictured Kendall with a nametag reading 'Kendall Hunter' on it, and then shook hie head, and imagined 'Kendall Grissom. There we go...so much for Kendall's not being into the whole CSI scene.' He thought.  
  
"Ok, call us if you find anything out..." Sapphire and Christina nodded.  
  
"Will do!" Kendall smiled.  
  
~~  
  
A few minutes after everyone had scattered, Shawn and Kendall were joined by Sara Sidle and Catherine Willows, another one of the CSI's. "Hey, Kendall!" Sara smiled. "Hey Shawn!"  
  
"Whoa..." Kendall looked at Shawn nervously. "Uh...hey Sara, Catherine..." Kendall nodded a hello to them both. "What are you doing here, anyway? Not to be rude...but..."  
  
"Oh, it's ok..." Catherine nodded back. "Your dad told us to come pick up a few case files...the Minkus case, the..."  
  
Sara stopped her. "Catherine! We're not supposed to tell them that!"  
  
"This is Griss' daughter!" Catherine tilted her head. "It's not like she's the type to tell everyone..."  
  
"I know, but you know that Griss would have your head for that..." Sara exclaimed.  
  
"You would know all about what Griss would want, too, wouldn't you, the future Mr. Grissom..." Catherine then realized that his daughter was sitting right in the room.  
  
"What?!" Kendall screeched.  
  
"Oh, they're just...uh...involved..." Catherine nodded. "Nothing serious, really..."  
  
"You guys, I'm not twelve...tell me the truth..." Kendall put her hands on her hips.  
  
"Uh...it is serious..." Sara smirked. "I think...I'm love your father..."  
  
Shawn's eyes widened, and he looked at Kendall, wondering how she would take all this.  
  
Kendall smiled. "Awesome!"  
  
"Really?" Sara asked. "It's really ok with you?"  
  
"Of course! I've been trying to get dad to date for a long time!" Kendall smiled.  
  
"Off to get those cases!" Catherine walked toward the stairs. "Come on, Sara..."  
  
Shawn and Kendall swapped tense glances. "Uh oh..." he whispered.  
  
"I got the feeling we should have put it back..." Kendall hissed at herself.  
  
Sara searched the files. "E. Miller, O. Milles...S. Milles...S. Minkus should be right here, cuz the next one is G. Molson..." she looked at Catherine.  
  
Catherine looked over Sara's shoulder. "You're right, it should..."  
  
"That's odd..." Sara looked up at Catherine. "It's not like Griss at all to lose something..."  
  
"I know, that's what I was thinking...maybe he has it with him, and just forgot?" Catherine shrugged.  
  
"That's not like him either..." Sara laughed.  
  
"I know...I'm just trying to think of what could have happened to it..." Catherine asked herself.  
  
~~  
  
Shawn and Kendall wanted to look inconspicuous, so Kendall put a movie into the DVD player, sat down on the couch, and nuzzled into Shawn; while Shawn wrapped his arm around her.  
  
Catherine and Sara came down the stairs, and looked at Shawn and Kendall. "Have you guys seen your father's Stuart Minkus case file?"  
  
Kendall looked up, acting confused. "No..." she shook her head. "I didn't even know he kept case files...sorry."  
  
Catherine shrugged. "It's ok...he probably has it and forgot..."  
  
Sara rolled her eyes. "Probably wanted to talk to Nick and Warrick alone, so he sent us out..."  
  
Kendall laughed. "Do you know when he's gonna be home, anyway?"  
  
"Well, we'll be in the lab until about ten-thirty..." Catherine explained.  
  
"Then he's taking me out to a late, late dinner..." Sara told her.  
  
"So about eleven-forty-five?" Kendall asked.  
  
"Yeah, probably..." Sara grinned. "I'll see you guys later..." she waved.  
  
Catherine waved. "See you guys!"  
  
"Bye!" both Kendall and Shawn waved back.  
  
"Ok...it's seven thirty now...we need to go get some of my dad's investigation stuff, and go to the crime scene..." Kendall nodded.  
  
"One problem..." Shawn tilted his head a little.  
  
"What?" she asked.  
  
"I have NO idea what any of this is..." Shawn shrugged.  
  
"Huh-boy..." Kendall grabbed Shawn's hand and dragged him upstairs. "Ok...this..." she pulled out a spray bottle of clearish liquid. "Is luminol..." she explained. "It picks up traces of DNA, like blood or seminal fluid..."  
  
Shawn wanted to laugh at the word seminal, but decided against it, because he wanted to look mature. "Ok..." he nodded. "What else..."  
  
"You need these..." she held up a pair of rubber-gloves. "Whenever you enter a crime scene..."  
  
"I know that, I do watch cop shows..." Shawn smiled.  
  
"Ok...how about q-tips? Like, if we find any DNA on the walls or whatever..." Kendall explained. "We use the q-tips to collect it."  
  
"Yeah...what are the tape strip things for?" Shawn asked.  
  
"If we find anything on the floor...or the wall that could be incriminating..." she explained. "And these baggies are for anything that we can just pick up. We can put it in the bag."  
  
Shawn smiled. "Ok, anything else I need to know?"  
  
"I'll brief you as we go along...let's just hope that not too many people are there, so we can just sneak by..." Kendall explained. "I can use my temp CSI pass that my dad gave me when he took me to work with him...just tweak it a bit, and I'll just say that you're a friend, that forgot his pass..." she explained. "I'll be right back, I have to go get it."  
  
"Ok..." Shawn had no idea what he was doing, but had to remain confident to impress Kendall.  
  
Kendall ran up to her room, and picked up a clip-on pass that had her picture on it, and said 'Kendall Grissom' on it. She brought it to her father's computer, and carefully added the word 'Det.' before her name, and 'Philadelphia Crime Lab' below it in smaller print. She then ran downstairs, and held it up before Shawn. "Look authentic to you?" she asked.  
  
"Definitely, Detective Grissom..." Shawn kidded.  
  
She smiled, and signaled for him to follow her to her car. "Come on, Detective Hunter, we have some work to do..."  
  
~~  
  
"But Detective Grissom..." the police officer guarding the crime scene asked. "Isn't that very unorthodox apparel for investigating a crime scene?" he asked, referring to her knee-length skirt and midriff bearing shirt.  
  
"Yes, but Officer McDaniel," she read his nametag. "I'm only...WE're only here to collect a quick bit of evidence..."  
  
"Ok, go ahead in, Detectives Grissom and Hunter..." Officer McDaniel nodded.  
  
"Thank you, Officer...this is much appreciated..." Kendall smiled, and walked into the crime scene, signaling Shawn to follow. 


	4. Chapter Three: Things Get Interesting

(AN: If this story isn't all too realistic, tell me, and tell me what to replace. I'm only 18, man! I have no idea about CSI stuff. I think this is coming out pretty well so far...)  
  
"Whoa...all the furniture is gone..." Kendall looked around. "Must've been evidence..."  
  
"Yeah..." Shawn looked around. "It's like a ghost house..."  
  
"I see a piece of hair...I see it first thing...how could dad have missed it?" Kendall asked herself.  
  
"Let's hope it's not so important they don't want it moved..." Shawn swallowed a lump in his throat.  
  
"Get into the bag, and hand me the tweezers..." Kendall directed, crouching down to look closer at the hair. "And grab me a baggie..."  
  
Shawn reached into the bag, and grabbed the tweezers and a baggie. He walked over to Kendall and handed them to her.  
  
"We'll just have to inconspicuously slip this into my dad's evidence bag..." Kendall explained. "I'll do it tonight before he gets home..."  
  
Just then, Kendall's cell phone rang. "Shawn, tell me if anything looks suspicious." She looked at the number calling, and saw that it was Sapphire's. "Hello, Detective Kendall Grissom...WHOA...I got a little too deep into character..."  
  
"Hey, Detective Griss...Detective Brown here..." Sapphire joked. "Maybe while we're investigating this, we should use our detective names as code, that'd be cool...but anyway...Frankie's alibi checks out. He was at poetry club, then he went to his father's wrestling match...we asked his father, too...and he showed us his ticket stub..."  
  
"Shawn and I found incriminating evidence at Minkus' house too. All the furniture was gone, so either it was a robbery, or the furniture was evidence..." Kendall explained. "A hair that my dad missed..." she was a little surprised. "He's missed quite a bit, because I see quite a bit...thank God luminol fades..."  
  
"You're gonna spray the room?" Sapphire asked. "A little bold, don't you think?"  
  
"It's necessary.it has to be done..." Kendall nodded.  
  
"Aye-aye Detective Grissom!" Sapphire grinned. "Maybe we should go to college for this...we'd be pretty good at it..."  
  
"I agree!" Kendall snickered. "See ya later, Sapph..."  
  
"Ciao, Detective." Sapphire hung the phone up.  
  
"Uh...Detective...Grissom...?" Shawn looked a little uneasy. "There is a very shadowy figure in the closet..."  
  
"What very shadowy figure? Are we in a horror movie now?" Kendall stood up, and headed toward the closet. When she came two feet away from the closet, the figure jumped up in the air and disappeared. Kendall paused in her tracks, half out of fear, and half out of interest. "Shawn...bring me a flashlight..." she held her hand out.  
  
Shawn placed a flashlight in Kendall's hand. "What's going on?"  
  
"The thing disappeared in the closet...there has to be a vent or something that it jumped into...I'm gonna look..." she opened the closet door. "Stay here, and if anything should happen to me..."  
  
"You REALLY sound like your dad, now..." Shawn nodded.  
  
Kendall rolled her eyes, and entered the closet. She flashed the flashlight onto the ceiling, and all around. "This is really weird, Shawn..." she aimed it to the corner. "All there is here is a little string coming out of the corner of the wall...hand me the tweezers again, I'm gonna put it in evidence, just in case..."  
  
Shawn put the tweezers and another baggie into her hand. "What if it opens a trapdoor?"  
  
"You've been watching FAR too many Scooby Doo movies with Eric..." Kendall rolled her eyes, and gripped the string with the tweezers. As soon as she pulled on it, a door in the side of the closet opened up.  
  
"Oh, I have...have I?" Shawn asked.  
  
Kendall's jaw was hanging open. "This is weird...maybe we should leave this for my dad..."  
  
"Just cut some of the string off...and we can put it in evidence..." Shawn suggested.  
  
"What if the WHOLE string is vital?" she asked. "We can't do that. Maybe we should just go check down in there...just to see what it is..."  
  
"And who's down there..." Shawn cleared his throat nervously.  
  
Kendall swallowed back a lump in her throat. "I'll go first..." she acted brave.  
  
They walked down the dark hallway, only lit by a torch every ten-or-so feet. It was cold and damp, feeling a lot like a dungeon. Kendall reached for Shawn's hand, and squeezed it tightly. She glanced at the wall. Every little brick looked like it was about to pop out of the wall, and something would come out and attack them. "Shawn...this is really giving me the creeps..." Since they had walked into the hallway, almost all the color had drained from Kendall's face.  
  
"Me too," Shawn whispered, as they came to a door. The door was made of black stone, and it was almost up to the ceiling. Shawn glanced down at Kendall, who was trembling.  
  
"Here goes nothing..." she cleared her throat, and pushed the door open.  
  
There stood rows and rows of beakers, each with a different chemical in them. Microscopes and computers lined the walls. It looked like a secret laboratory, like in Frankenstein. The only thing missing was the gourney in the middle of the room. "This is really weird..." Kendall looked around. "Maybe we should leave the door open so that if my dad comes back to the crime scene, he'll definitely see it..."  
  
Shawn walked up to a computer, and looked at the screen. "Minkus had something huge going on here..." he explained. "Look at all the passwords you have to enter to get into this one file...four? Man!"  
  
"I always knew that guy was going to be famous..." Kendall shrugged. "I guess intelligence brings death..."  
  
"In some cases, maybe..." Shawn looked at the name of Minkus' project. "'Minkus' Miracle Age Foam?'" he read, with a laugh.  
  
"I thought Minkus was better than a Anti-Age scam..." Kendall laughed a little. "Well, people do fall for that stuff..."  
  
"Yeah...but what we need to be thinking about is why anyone would want to kill him...I mean, he was a pretty nice guy..." Shawn hesitated. "Tell anyone I said that, and I never speak to you again..."  
  
Kendall laughed. "Gotcha, Detective Hunter..." she started trying to hack Minkus' account. "Do you know his birthday?" she asked.  
  
"No!" Shawn rolled his eyes. "We weren't exactly friends..."  
  
"Think, Shawn...anything he would've used for a password..." Kendall stressed.  
  
"He'd always had a thing for Topanga...try Topanga's full name for one?" Shawn asked.  
  
"T-O-P-A-N-G-A S-T-A-R L-A-W-R-E-N-C-E..." Kendall recited the letters, as she typed them in, then clicked OK. "We have password number one!" she smiled. "Think harder...her birthday?"  
  
"Maybe..." Shawn looked over Kendall's shoulder.  
  
"September, twenty-third, 1982..." Kendall typed in, then clicked OK.  
  
"YES!" Shawn cheered, as the 'password correct' screen came up.  
  
"Hmmm..." Kendall wracked her brain, then typed in 'Miracle Cream.'  
  
"He wouldn't be that obvious, Kendall..." Shawn shook his head.  
  
She clicked OK, and the 'password correct' screen came up again. She flashed Shawn a 'ahem?' type of glance.  
  
"Ok, ok...think..." he turned her head back to the screen.  
  
Kendall laughed, and tried to think of the last password. She looked at Shawn. "If he loves Topanga, who do you think he hates?"  
  
"CORY!" they both shouted in unison.  
  
"I hate Cornelius Matthews?" she typed in, and clicked OK.  
  
"Welcome to the Minkus' Miracle Cream file!" came blaring out of the computer's speakers.  
  
"Ha!" Kendall started to read. "This is going to get me famous, and I'll finally be able to get Topanga away..." Kendall paused, and glanced up at Shawn. "From Cory?"  
  
Shawn read on. "This miracle cream will reduce wrinkles, blemishes, and any sign of aging, and it won't clog pores! Blah, blah, blah."  
  
"He wanted to get Topanga away from Cory?" Kendall stood up. "This file may be a key factor! Shawn, write down all the passwords we used, and I'm gonna save this file to a disk..." she rummaged around the table for a disk.  
  
Shawn started writing down the passwords. "I still don't see how this is key evidence..."  
  
"Think about it..." Kendall found a disk, and inserted it into the disk slot. "Cory and Topanga are in love. Minkus wanted Topanga...what do they say? I would do anything for love?"  
  
"What are you thinking?" Shawn asked.  
  
"I'm THINKING..." Kendall explained. "Minkus staged his own death, so that Cory would get blamed...then he'd come back later on, and..."  
  
"Whoa, whoa..." Shawn shook his head. "We're not in Nancy Drew mysteries, here. This is MINKUS we're talking about."  
  
"So?" Kendall asked. "People are capable of anything."  
  
"I think you need to take a couple of deep breaths..." Shawn patted Kendall on the back. "Come on, let's go, and come back tomorrow..."  
  
"Ok..." Kendall rolled her eyes. "But just a second..." she took the disk out of the computer, and put it in her dad's evidence bag. 'I'm gonna have to remember to take this out, and check it out myself...' she thought, grabbing the passwords Shawn wrote down, and sticking them in her bag.  
  
~~  
  
It was eleven-thirty, and Kendall couldn't sleep. She sat at the computer, reading Minkus' file. 'You wait, with this invention, not only will I get Topanga from Cory, but I'll also win the award at the Inventors Convention. Things are all going to look up for Stuart Minkus, soon! They'll all know. My name will be in every house, on every tongue...' Kendall shook her head. "His means to an end led to his OWN end..." she said to herself.  
  
She heard the door close, and immediately closed the file. "The hair is in dad's evidence bag...I have the file...the passwords are hidden...I think I'm all set..."  
  
"Kendall? You still awake?" Gil yelled up the stairs to Kendall.  
  
Kendall ran to the stairwell, and peered down at her father. "Yeah, I'm up, dad! How was your date with Sara?" she winked.  
  
Gil smiled at Kendall. "I assume she told you?"  
  
"Yeah, she was here with Catherine...she said she needed a file..." Kendall explained.  
  
"Yeah, she couldn't find it. But that's all confidential..." Gil told his daughter. "Don't get me wrong, I'd love to share this with you..."  
  
"Please, daddy? I took up forensics in school, and it'd really help me if I could look at a real case!" Kendall begged.  
  
Gil always fell for whenever Kendall called him daddy. She rarely did, but when she did, she always got whatever she wanted. "Ok, come on...we'll look at my evidence files on the Stuart Minkus case..." he led her upstairs to his room.  
  
Kendall smiled. 'Wait until he sees the...' she thought. 'That's gonna crack this case wide open, I bet!' she slipped the baggie into the evidence bag as they were walking up the stairs.  
  
~~  
  
"And this..." Gil took out the baggie with the hair in it. "Whoa...I must have overlooked this...maybe Sara put it in...what the...?"  
  
Kendall suppressed her grin, and put on a pair of rubber gloves. "What is this?" she asked, referring to a fiber of clothing.  
  
"This is from a black jean jacket..." he explained. "Sara found this on the floor of the closet..."  
  
Kendall's jaw dropped. She recognized this fiber as something from Cory's jacket. 'Oh my God...now Cory is actually a suspect...' she closed her mouth quickly. "Did you identify where it came from yet?"  
  
"Not yet..." Gil shrugged. "Why, look familiar?"  
  
"No..." Kendall lied. "Just curious...to me...it looks like a men's black jean jacket...I saw one on sale at JCPenny last week..."  
  
Grissom smiled proudly at his daughter. "Who knew your love of fashion would come in handy?" he asked. "I'll run that through the records tomorrow..."  
  
Kendall was concealing her concern. She had a haunting feeling that Cory was the murderer. Now all she needed was hard evidence. But how could she try to convict one of her closest friends for murder? 


	5. Chapter Four: Things Get Ugly

"So, what now?" Sapphire asked Kendall, who was sitting on the couch; looking over things she remembered and wrote down from her father's evidence file.  
  
"Did I tell you what I saw?" Kendall asked, trying to stop Eric from kissing her neck.  
  
"No.what?" Christina sat on Kendall's table, while Jack paid close attention.  
  
"My dad was showing me his evidence..." Kendall was interrupted.  
  
"He showed you that? Is that legal?" Shawn asked.  
  
"I'm not sure, but he did..." Kendall continued. "And I saw a fiber from Cory's black jean jacket..."  
  
The room went silent, but then Shawn coughed and broke the silence. "Really? But..."  
  
"It was...I know that jacket, and the string was definitely from it..." Kendall nodded.  
  
Eric was practically in shock. "Cory? But why would he want to kill Minkus?"  
  
"I'm not sure that's even it..." Kendall shrugged. "The fiber may be from his jacket, but a lot of people wear that jacket...like..." she practically choked out the name, because it hurt her to even think it. "Topanga..."  
  
Sapphire and Christina gasped, while Jack, Eric and Shawn all shook their heads in disbelief.  
  
"Seriously, Shawn...remember that hair? It was about the length of Topanga's hair...and the right color, too..." Kendall asked.  
  
Shawn closed his eyes and visualized the hair. "Oh, man...we need to spray for epithelials and stuff... "  
  
"Shawn used a CSI word..." Sapphire's jaw dropped. "This is REALLY serious..."  
  
"You guys...I think we need to convict one...or two...of our friends for murder..." Kendall looked around.  
  
Eric shook his head. "I'll talk to Cory..." he stated sullenly. "Sapphire...you need to come with me, so I'm not preconcluded..."  
  
Sapphire nodded. "I will..."  
  
Christina wanted to cry. "I'll talk to Topanga...and Jack, you'll come with me..." she asked. "Right?"  
  
"Yeah, of course I will..." Jack agreed.  
  
"And Shawn and I will go back to the crime scene to spray luminol..." Kendall felt horrible. She hated convicting such a close friend for such a horrible thing.  
  
Shawn nodded. "I'll come with you..."  
  
Kendall looked up at everyone. "My dad is in the lab, I'd assume everyone else is, too..."  
  
"Let's go then..." Kendall handed Shawn the fake CSI ID that she made for him.  
  
"Det. Shawn Hunter, Philadelphia Crime Lab..." he read. "Ok...let's go..."  
  
~~  
  
Eric gave Sapphire a glance, as though he was asking her to reassure him.  
  
"We're doing the right thing, Eric...you can do it..." she put her hand on his shoulder. "Do it for Minkus..."  
  
Eric walked into the house, and looked at his mom. "Hey mom!" he faked a smile. "Is Cory here?"  
  
"Uh, yeah, I think so...I think he's up in his room..." she explained.  
  
"Hi, Mrs. Matthews..." Sapphire smiled.  
  
"Hi, Sapphire...what're you up to?" Mrs. Matthews asked.  
  
"Not too much, it's kinda important that we talk to Cory, though." Sapphire headed toward the stairs. "Thanks, Mrs. M..."  
  
Cory was sitting in his room, doing homework. He looked as though his mind were elsewhere.  
  
"COR!" Eric shouted, after saying his name calmly about three times. "What are you doing?"  
  
Cory jumped from his notebook. "Oh...hey Eric...what's up?" he asked.  
  
"You look jumpy..." Eric told his brother. "You ok?"  
  
"Oh...uh yeah. I'm just a little unnerved about Minkus' murder and everything..." Cory explained.  
  
Sapphire shook her head. 'This isn't looking good...' she thought. "What about it is bothering you?" she asked.  
  
"Oh, I'm just really wondering what happened...who would do such a thing, you know? He really never did anything to hurt anyone..." Cory explained.  
  
Eric shook his head, too. He couldn't believe he was accusing his brother of the murder of someone he was friendly with. "Hey, Cor...do you have your black jean jacket?"  
  
"Why?" Cory asked.  
  
"Just curious...I wanna look at it..." Eric explained.  
  
"No, Topanga's got it..." Cory told them. "I let her use it to go to the park...she said she had to meet someone..."  
  
Eric and Sapphire exchanged terrified glances. "Topanga..." they whispered.  
  
~~  
  
Christina and Jack knocked on Topanga's door. "Let's hope we get something out of this..." Jack sighed.  
  
Topanga jumped out of her skin, but walked to the door, and opened it. "Coming!" she shouted, as she walked to the door. "Oh, hey Jack! Hey Christina!"  
  
"Hey, Topanga..." Jack felt terrible about what he was going to do. "What's up?"  
  
"Not too much, just working on my senior project..." Topanga shrugged. "Wanna check it out?"  
  
"Oh, cool!" Christina smiled. "What is it?"  
  
"It's a solar powered microwave oven..." Topanga explained. "It takes rays from the sun that aim toward it, and it can cook a bowl of spaghetti- o's..."  
  
"Whoa..." Jack smiled. "That's pretty cool..."  
  
"Yeah..." Topanga grinned. "So...do you know how the investigation's going?"  
  
"Pretty good...Shawn and Kendall are going back to the scene later..." Jack explained.  
  
"JACK!" Christina yelled.  
  
'Oh yeah...' Jack thought. 'She's a suspect...uh oh...I hope I didn't just endanger them...'  
  
"Oh...I was thinking of maybe helping you..." Topanga sat down. "But then I decided not to. I really don't want to get hurt..."  
  
"It's ok, we're doing fine..." Christina smiled comfortingly at Topanga.  
  
"Are you sure you don't need any help at all?" Topanga asked.  
  
"Really, no...nothing at all!" Christina insisted. "We're on top of a very big lead..."  
  
"Wow! Really? Great!" Topanga smiled. "Who do you think it is?"  
  
"I can't share that...Kendall made us promise..." Christina explained.  
  
"No she didn't..." Jack shook his head. "She wanted us to..." Jack was abruptly interrupted by an elbow in his stomach.  
  
"It's ok..." Topanga nodded. "It's a very hush-hush case...I understand."  
  
~~  
  
Kendall and Shawn once again got into the crime scene without a problem. Kendall started spraying the floor with luminol, and looking for blood, which she handed Shawn a high powered magnifying glass to scan the room closely. She had a whole area sprayed, and it all turned blue. "Shawn..." Kendall called his attention. "Shawn...look at this...I know my dad probably noticed it when he sprayed for blood...but..."  
  
"Whoa..." Shawn looked at the floor. "This is getting weirder by the second...it's like whoever did this drained his blood right here, and then dragged him to wherever he was found..."  
  
"This is sick..." Kendall shook her head. "Shawn...can we get outta here? I get a weird feeling something bad is gonna happen..." she asked.  
  
But Shawn's eyes were fixated on the ceiling. Something very strange was happening. It was like a door was opening, but how could there be a door in the ceiling. But then...he looked closer and saw a shadow. "Kendall..." he whispered to Kendall. "Look out..."  
  
Kendall looked up. "What? What's wrong?"  
  
"Kendall..." Shawn's whisper loudened. "Move! Quick!"  
  
As soon as the word quick had escaped Shawn's lips, Kendall felt something large fall onto her back, and something very heavy hit her head. Within seconds, she was out like a light. 


	6. Chapter Five: Getting Caught

"So, let me get this straight..." Shawn, Eric, Sapphire, Jack and Christina were now being interrogated by Grissom, and I don't mean Kendall. "You guys all decided it would be a good idea to TAMPER with evidence, and to try to investigate on your OWN? And in the midst of it all, Kendall gets kidnapped by the killer?"  
  
"You guys don't realize how much trouble the department is in now, do you?" Warrick asked. "I mean, we all may get our licenses revoked because of this..." Sapphire never remembered seeing Warrick this angry before. He was always calm, and so tolerant of everything. But right now, he looked as though he were about to explode. "Eckley is licking his lips with joy right now...he's been waiting to get us out of CSI three for ages!"  
  
Christina seemed unphased, until Nick got into her face. "Christina...you realize that every little nit of this is going to get back to your mother? And not only will you be unable to come into the lab, you'll possibly be in trouble with the law!"  
  
"Yeah, I know, Nick...I realized that, thanks..." she sardonically remarked.  
  
"Now isn't the time for that tone of voice, Christina..." Nick scolded her. "You may be an adult, but you're not unable to be punished! You, being the oldest, I would expect to stray all of these kids AWAY from the idea of investigating!"  
  
"Thank you, dad..." Christina subtly hinted for Nick to get out of her face.  
  
Sapphire elbowed Christina. "Shut UP!" she grumbled. "You're not making it any easier on the rest of us!"  
  
"She's right!" Nick told Christina, backing out of her face.  
  
"And you!" Grissom got up close to Shawn's face. "What were you thinking NOT talking her out of this? You know she could have gotten killed, didn't you?" he asked.  
  
"I did not!" Shawn defended himself. "She's not dead, either..."  
  
"How do you know?" Grissom asked. "She could be...she could be laying on the side of the road somewhere...and if CSI gets the call to investigate...guess who'll be the first to know?"  
  
"You?" Shawn asked.  
  
"And after me?" Grissom asked.  
  
"Me..." Shawn sighed. "I'm sorry, Gil. I really am..."  
  
Sara shook her head, unable to remain mad at them for what they tried to do. "You guys...come on...they thought they were helping..."  
  
"Really..." Catherine nodded. "I mean, when you were eighteen or nineteen, didn't you do something like..."  
  
Grissom interrupted. "Not something that got someone KIDNAPPED!"  
  
"Oh yeah..." Catherine scoffed and looked at Sara. "Forgot about that..."  
  
"So did I..." Sara cleared her throat.  
  
Shawn stared at the floor. He felt so terrible that he hadn't done something about Kendall. Now he had to investigate twice as much, just to get her back, so everyone would be calm.  
  
~~  
  
Sapphire sighed. "I feel so bad about all this...do you think Kendall is ok?" she asked Christina, sitting in the living room at Sapphire's house.  
  
"I'm pretty sure no kidnapper would be able to hurt Kendall...she's a pretty tough one..." Christina nodded, comforting Sapphire. "After all, she's the incomparable Gil Grissom's daughter..."  
  
"Yeah, that's true...I wonder how she didn't see the kidnapper coming, then..." Sapphire thought. "Or how Shawn at least didn't...I don't know, this is all too weird..."  
  
"She's fine, I know she is..." Christina nodded. "This is Kendall...she's crafty, smart...she's probably already out of there!"  
  
Shawn sat in the kitchen, thinking about who could have been the attacker. He concluded that he needed to sneak back into the crime scene, and investigate it himself. For Kendall. He could have done so much more. It could have been him wherever she is, not her. A dull, soft pain surged through his head. Usually, in Shawn's mind, that meant he was overstressed, but he didn't care. He felt so terrible. He ran out the door, and to his car. How was he going to investigate this without Kendall? She knew everything about investigation, not him. He needed to talk to Sapphire. She was the next closest link to an Investigator that he had. He needed to make a mockup ID for her, so she could sneak into the scene, and sneak him in, too. But it'd been done before. They'd suspect. He needed to go into the Grissom house, and take some equipment, then sneak into the scene the back way, and investigate. Yes, all for Kendall. He could do it. Kendall had taught him a lot over the past couple days. That's what he had to do. He had to use the knowledge that Kendall had given him about investigation, and lurk about, trying to find clues. But he couldn't go alone, because if he disappeared, who would look for her then? He walked back inside, and approached Sapphire, Eric, Christina and Jack. "Ok...here's the deal..." he had a serious look on his face, like someone had just told him he was going to die tomorrow. "You four are going to help me find Kendall..." he explained. "Or at least one of you. I can't really do it alone..."  
  
Sapphire looked up from her magazine. "What do you mean?" she asked, pushing some hair behind her ear. "How can we find her? You realize that every Officer in Pennsylvania has our name? I mean, come on..."  
  
"So, you guys..." Shawn looked Sapphire and Christina. "Talk to your uncle/cousin, or whatever...and butter them up..." he began. "And the BEG them...PLEAD with them...to let us help with the case..."  
  
"Yeah right! Nick will NEVER let me help! I can see him now, saying 'you won't help, you'll only hinder!'" Christina glowered at the thought of Nick cussing her out.  
  
"What about you, then, Sapph?" Shawn looked at Sapphire.  
  
"Warrick might let two or three of us help...but not all five..." Sapphire shrugged. "I'll definitely go. So, who would be willing to help?"  
  
Shawn, Jack and Eric raised their hands.  
  
"Why not you, Christina?" Eric asked.  
  
"I'm already in enough trouble! I love Kendall to death, but not enough to risk my own life!" Christina shook her head. "No way, no how!"  
  
Shawn looked at Christina angrily. "Fine..."  
  
"Well, I know Eric is gonna come with me...and...Shawn, this was all your plan...so, Jack..." Sapphire shrugged. "Stay behind with Christina, and be prepared to take someone's place if they get hurt?"  
  
"Ok..." Jack was willing to abide by that. "I'll be praying for her..."  
  
~~  
  
Warrick was sitting at his kitchen table, when he was suddenly jumped by a knock on his door. He stood up, and headed toward the door, and knowing as soon as he saw Sapphire, what she was there for, he rolled his eyes. "No, Sapph..." he grumbled, as he opened the door.  
  
"Uncle Warrick! It won't be all of us!" Sapphire walked in. "Just Eric, Shawn and myself! Please?"  
  
"Why? How can I believe that you won't bring the whole nation along?" Warrick asked.  
  
"Come on! When I say three people, you know I only mean three people!" Sapphire pleaded. "Please?"  
  
"Sapphire, even if I WANTED to say yes, HOW do you think I would convince Grissom to let you help?" Warrick asked, rolling his eyes. He pictured the look on Grissom's face when he asked him.  
  
"By telling him that it would be in Kendall's best interest?" Sapphire knew that Kendall and Sara were Gil's weak spots. "And maybe get Sara to help you? Sara likes us! She'll go along with it!"  
  
Warrick thought for a second. "I'll think about it, Sapphire...I'll call you later..."  
  
Sapphire smiled wide. 'I definitely got Uncle Warrick's persuasion genes!' she thought. "Thank you, Uncle Warrick..." she grinned, knowing that when Warrick said 'I'll think about it,' he meant 'Yes, Sapph, I'll do it...' "Did I ever tell you that you're my favorite uncle?"  
  
"Only whenever you ask me for something..." Warrick hugged Sapphire. "See you later, Sapph..."  
  
~~  
  
"So?" Shawn asked Sapphire, hoping that she had convinced Warrick. "What'd he say?"  
  
"He'll think about it, and in Uncle Warrick speak, that ALWAYS means yes!" Sapphire smiled.  
  
"Thank you so much, Sapph..." Shawn forced a smile.  
  
"You definitely take after him in more ways than one..." Eric hugged Sapphire. "With us on the case, along with Grissom, Sara, Warrick, Nick and Catherine...we're sure to solve it in no time!"  
  
"Don't they usually split up to handle cases?" Shawn asked. "Why did they all stick together this time?"  
  
"I don't know...originally, it was only Catherine, Nick and Uncle Warrick's case..." Sapphire explained. "But, I think when Kendall got involved...so did Gil and Sara..."  
  
"That's understandable..." Eric nodded. "Imagine what Gil must be going through right now..."  
  
Shawn sighed. 'I can...' he thought. 


	7. Chapter Six: Temporary Real CSI's

Sapphire, Eric and Shawn anxiously awaited the word from Warrick, in the rec room at the crime lab. Shawn was watching the news, and all of a sudden, a news update came on.  
  
"And, the Stuart Minkus murder case deepens, as Philadelphia CSI Gil Grissom's daughter, Kendall Grissom, gets kidnapped, possibly by the killer, more on this in a moment..." the news anchor stated.  
  
"Thank you for the VERY late update, man..." Sapphire grumbled, flipping off the TV. "We already know Kendall's gone..."  
  
Shawn sighed, and took another drink of his Pepsi. He turned from the TV, waiting for Warrick to re-enter the room with their answer. But, instead, Catherine joined them.  
  
"Hey, you guys...you're missing two, aren't you?" Catherine asked.  
  
"Three, actually..." Sapphire cleared her throat.  
  
"Well, yeah, I wasn't exactly..." Catherine cleared her throat, too. "Sorry, guys..."  
  
"It's ok, Catherine...we know that's not what you meant..." Eric nodded.  
  
Shawn stared at the door. "Did you hear anything about us being able to help or not?" he asked, his eyes still fixated on the door.  
  
Catherine shrugged. "Last I knew, Griss and Warrick were having it out in the hallway, and Eckley was twiddling his thumbs, in pure rapture..."  
  
"Is he down your throats, because of us?" Sapphire asked.  
  
"It's no big thing, he's been up our butts since the day we got moved to CSI three..." Catherine explained.  
  
"Here comes Warrick!" Shawn sat up.  
  
As soon as Warrick entered the room, the three troublemakers bombarded him with questions.  
  
"So, Uncle Warrick...WHAT did he say?" Sapphire asked.  
  
"Can we help?" Eric asked.  
  
"Please say he said yes!" Shawn prayed.  
  
"Here..." Warrick handed them temporary CSI ID's. "If we don't find this out in two weeks, you're off the team..."  
  
"And, if we do find this out in two weeks, you're still off the team..." Grissom entered the room. "Don't hinder...or you're out of here...listen to everything the proprietor, a.k.a. me, says, or you're gone..."  
  
Sapphire, Eric and Shawn immediately pinned on their ID's, and got into serious mode. "So, where do we begin, boss?" Sapphire asked.  
  
"Sapphire...go with Catherine and Sara to talk to Topanga and Cory...they're in the interrogation room...Eric, go with Nick and Warrick to DNA. They'll help you out from there. Shawn and I are going back to the crime scene, so that he can point the things out to me that I missed..." Gil instructed everyone. "We'll meet back here to discuss what we found, later on tonight..."  
  
Everyone scattered from the room, and all went to their designated areas.  
  
~~  
  
"Ok, so...when I interviewed them, I should have gotten straight to the point?" Sapphire asked Catherine, after she had told him that she and Eric confronted Cory and Topanga in a completely unorthodox way.  
  
"No, not exactly..." Sara answered for Catherine. "You don't want to be too subtle, but you don't want to be too blatant, either..."  
  
"What do you mean? That's kinda...hard, isn't it?" Sapphire asked.  
  
"Yeah, that's why it takes a lot of psych courses, and humanity courses in college to become a CSI...it's not all science..." Catherine explained. "Like, when you're dealing with someone insane..."  
  
"Like Eric?" Sapphire asked, with a wink.  
  
"Like Eric, yes..." Catherine laughed. "When you're dealing with someone like Eric..." she continued. "You have to be very careful..."  
  
"I know...I'm taking a psych class right now..." Sapphire told them.  
  
"To be a CSI?" Sara asked.  
  
"Maybe..." Sapphire actually thought about it this time, instead of flat out saying no. She looked into the interrogation room, at Cory and Topanga. "Don't they usually interrogate people separately?" she asked.  
  
"Yeah, but Cory and Topanga refused to be separated..." Sara shrugged. "Young love, I guess, and we just decided to go along with it."  
  
'How can we be blaming Cory and Topanga?' Sapphire asked. 'Topanga wouldn't hurt anyone, and she's always said that Kendall is her best friend...she would never do that to her! And Cory? He's friends with Minkus...and Kendall! How can we be blaming them?' she swallowed her doubt, and went into the room after Sara and Catherine.  
  
Topanga flashed Sapphire a look, as if to say 'how could you?' and nuzzled into Cory. She looked away from Sapphire in disgust, and straight to Catherine. "I didn't hurt anyone, I swear it...and why did that scary guy just walk away with a strand of my hair?"  
  
Cory hugged Topanga. "Sh, don't worry..."  
  
~~  
  
Eric looked around. 'Good thing I'm not my normal self...' he thought, looking at all the beakers and syringes. 'Half of this would be on the floor...' he looked at Warrick and Nick. "So, what are we testing?"  
  
"Well, right now, we're waiting for results on the hair found at the scene...and after that, we're gonna test the fiber from the jacket...to see if it has any DNA on it..." Nick explained.  
  
"Yo, Stokes...there's a problem..." Warrick directed Nick to check out what he was holding.  
  
"What?" Nick directed for Eric to follow him.  
  
"The hair that Brass pulled off Topanga doesn't match the hair at the scene...and obviously, just judging from looks, it's not the Cory's hair..." Warrick explained.  
  
Nick looked confused. "But..." he thought for a second. "Man!"  
  
"Every time we think we have a lead, what happens?" Warrick asked.  
  
"It turns up nil..." Nick sat down. "Let's test the jacket fiber...Kendall told Gil that it was on sale at JCPenny...we'll have to check and see who bought a jacket like this..."  
  
"Yeah, but you do realize how many people buy jackets like that, right?" Eric asked. "It's the in thing..."  
  
"It's a start, though..." Warrick shrugged, typing in the brand name of the jacket, and the color. "And it's all we've got right now..."  
  
"Yeah, that's true..." Eric sat down with Warrick and Nick next to the printer. "Shawn said that Kendall had almost picked up some DNA or something...before she got kidnapped..."  
  
Warrick and Nick turned their attention to him. "Really?" Warrick asked.  
  
"Yeah...Shawn said she was spraying luminol, and it turned all blue, and then she got pounced..." Eric explained.  
  
"Maybe we should call Grissom and tell him..." Nick suggested.  
  
"Nah, Shawn will..." Warrick shrugged. "He remembers stuff like that..."  
  
"Ok..." Nick sat on the table, waiting for the results to come out of the printer.  
  
~~  
  
Grissom and Shawn had a completely silent ride to the crime scene. The first words spoken were by Shawn, and those were only to tell Grissom where Kendall was pounced. "Over there," Shawn pointed to a spot on the rug that had been flattened by a chair or something. "Right on the flat spot...that's where Kendall was attacked..."  
  
"Thanks..." Grissom nodded.  
  
"There is something I want to show you, though..." Shawn walked toward the closet.  
  
"What?" Grissom followed Shawn, expecting something trivial. But when Shawn pulled the string, and the door opened to the 'secret laboratory,' his jaw dropped. "Ingenious..." Grissom whispered, talking about the trapdoor. "Here, Shawn...can you check for evidence around where Kendall got attacked?"  
  
"Actually, you may need me when you get down there...there are computers with about four passwords, and I remember them all..." Shawn nodded.  
  
"Ok..." Grissom disliked having his ideas questioned, but Shawn had a point. "We can check for DNA after..."  
  
Shawn showed Grissom into the room with the computers and beakers. "That computer right there..." Shawn pointed.  
  
"How could someone from Philadelphia afford so many computers and chemicals?" Grissom asked, sitting down at the computer.  
  
'He's very take-charge...much be where Kendall gets it...' Shawn thought. "Password one is 'Topanga Star Lawrence...'"  
  
"Mmmhmm?" Grissom typed the password in fast.  
  
After going over all the passwords, Grissom's face changed. Reading Minkus' plan made Grissom shake his head. "Another corrupt kid, just because he was picked on a lot? When are people going to learn?"  
  
Shawn was looking around at the beakers. "Hey, Detective Grissom...check this out..." he called Grissom.  
  
"Call me Griss...or Grissom..." Grissom walked over to where Shawn was. "What is it?"  
  
"It says...'for Cory' on it..." Shawn put on a pair of rubber gloves.  
  
"Good thinking, put it into evidence..." Grissom nodded. He was now confident that he'd made the right decision letting Shawn come with them.  
  
~~  
  
Kendall awoke to a sharp pain in her head, and a masked figure hovering over her. She reached to rub her eyes, but her hands were chained to a wall. "What the...where am I?" she asked.  
  
"In every nightmare you've ever had..." a raspy, harsh voice shouted at her. The figure was feminine. Whoever it was walked across the room, and sat on the floor. "Be afraid, Kendall...if you live through this, you'll be forever scarred!"  
  
A ping-pong-ball-sized lump suddenly infringed upon Kendall's throat, but she swallowed it back down. She just leaned back, and started to get used to the surroundings, knowing she'd be there for awhile. "I'm not scared of you at all! My dad will find me...he's the best CSI on the east coast!"  
  
"I KNOW who your father is..." the figure hissed. "And I am atrociously unthreatened; because like you said, he may be a good CSI, but he's no Horatio Caine!" she directly quoted Kendall.  
  
"How did you...why are you...who are you?" Kendall asked.  
  
"Now now, Kendall..." the figure stood up. "Don't get too demanding! Wouldn't want something bad to happen to you..." she hissed, shutting the door as she left.  
  
Kendall used her shoulder to push her glasses back to their proper place, and leaned into the wall. "Please be working on it, daddy...please? And Shawn...please be helping him..." she prayed as she dozed off. 


	8. Chapter Seven: Back To Zero

(AN: I'm thinking of ending this in one or 2 chapters...should I do a sequel? Review me and tell me...)  
  
Kendall woke up. She thought it was all a dream. When she looked around the room and found that it wasn't, she sighed. "I wish I knew who that was...then I could figure some things out...like how they knew I said that...the only people in the room were...but it couldn't be one of them...no way!" she erased the possibility as much as she could from her head, and sighed. "How long am I gonna be here?" she asked. "I can't believe I was so stupid as to join an investigation..." she wanted to hit herself on the head, but couldn't. Her eyes welled up with tears, and she tried to hold them back. She suddenly remembered the time when she was fourteen, and her boyfriend had dumped her at the freshman spring fling. She came home crying and...  
  
*  
  
'Kendall?' Gil walked into the room. 'Honey, are you ok?' Gil walked into the room, hearing her tears from his bedroom.  
  
Kendall looked up at Gil, tears streaming down her cheeks, and an absolutely disconcerted look on her face. 'He broke up with me...'  
  
Gil sat on the bed beside Kendall. He tried to think of what to say, but the words were impossible to find, so reached out and nervously hugged her. It was the first time he had hugged her since she was ten, but it was definitely the most heartfelt, even from before then. 'It's ok, hun...you're better than that...' he reassured her.  
  
Kendall put her head on his shoulder and cried. It was always comforting to be in her father's grasp.  
  
*  
  
Kendall's tears were now steadily flowing down her cheeks. She could definitely use one of daddy's hugs right now. Either his or Shawn's. Shawn...how could she not be worrying about Shawn? She knew that Shawn took matters like this straight to his heart. And the fact that he was there when she got attacked? He was crushed right now. She knew it. She thought of the time on their sophomore history class' trip to New York City when Shawn brought her to the top of the Statue of Liberty, or as high as you can climb anyway, and held her hand when she got scared. And she got scared a lot.  
  
*  
  
'Come on, Kendall! You know you can do it!' Shawn cheered her on. 'We're almost there...and if you chicken out now, you'll be so mad when everyone else brags about being able to see EVERYTHING, and you can't...'  
  
'I'm not going to chicken out, Shawn, don't worry!' Kendall walked up three more steps. 'But I do need exercise...I'm about to die here...' she passed a window. 'Ack! Ok, chickening out doesn't sound like a half bad idea at the moment...' Kendall turned around.  
  
'Kendall Cameron Grissom! Don't you dare!' Shawn yelled at her.  
  
'Don't call me that!' she chased after Shawn up the stairs, and sooner than she knew, she was there. She paused, when Shawn stopped running, and looked out the window. 'Whoa! I'm...here!'  
  
'I knew you could do it!' Shawn stood beside her, and smiled, scanning New York City with her.  
  
*  
  
"Kendall!" a raspy voice hissed at her.  
  
"Huh? What?" she looked up to see the figure standing over her again. "What is it?"  
  
"You were always such a baby! What are you crying about?" the figure taunted her.  
  
"Gee, I don't know!" Kendall yelled. "You KIDNAP me from everything I know, my father, my friends, Shawn, when I was SO close to figuring out the murder case...and now you're hovering over me, taunting and teasing me!" she screeched. "What could be wrong? Hmm, I don't know!"  
  
"I'd hush!" the figure got back down into Kendall's face. "Before something happens to one of your friends, or your father, or your precious Shawn!"  
  
Kendall's jaw dropped. "You wouldn't dare!" she tried to wriggle loose. "Let me GO! Let me out of here NOW!" she screamed. "Daddy! Shawn! Someone, PLEASE!" she cried.  
  
The figure left the room, cackling at Kendall's hopeless state. As soon as the door shut, Kendall burst into tears. "They HAVE to be close...they have to be! They wouldn't just leave me here, would they?"  
  
~~  
  
Sapphire sighed. "That was completely pointless...Topanga and Cory are absolutely innocent, aren't they?"  
  
"Yeah...those weren't tears of guilt...they were genuine tears of fear..." Sara soughed, referring to a breakdown Topanga had in the interrogation room.  
  
"And then when Cory looked at you, and asked how you could accuse them? That was either extremely well-acted, or sincere..." Catherine addressed Sapphire, then looked into the room, through a one-side window.  
  
"Who else is a possible suspect, then?" Sapphire asked. "I mean, that WAS Cory's jacket...I know it..."  
  
"Maybe we should ask Topanga if she lent it out?" Sara queried. "I mean, I don't know about you guys, but that's when I lost almost all of my personal items, was in my high-school days..."  
  
"Yeah..." Catherine looked back at Sapphire and Sara. "Let's go..."  
  
Sara walked into the room first, and looked at Topanga. "Ok, we've already clarified with Cory that the jacket had been lent to you..." she explained. "So, did you lend it to anyone?"  
  
"Jacket? What jacket?" Topanga flashed Sara a confused glance.  
  
"The black JCPenny one?" Cory asked. "You remember?"  
  
Topanga nodded. "Oh yeah! I lent that to..."  
  
(AN: Ha-ha! You'll have to wait and see!) ~~  
  
Eric and Warrick were sitting in the research room, waiting for the results on the jacket, while Nick got coffee. They already had the results on whoever owned it, but they had just run it for any trace of DNA.  
  
"So, Cory owns one, but now Catherine and Sara have cleared his and Topanga's names..." Warrick recapped the events of the past couple hours.  
  
"And now we're back to square one..." Eric sighed.  
  
"Hot coffee...coming through..." Nick set three coffees on the table, and sat down in the empty chair. "Why do you look like someone just stole your pet or something?"  
  
"We're back to square one, unless we find any foreign DNA on this fiber..." Warrick rolled his eyes.  
  
"Tell me," Catherine poked her head into the room, quickly followed by Sapphire and Sara. "How much do you love us?"  
  
"Why?" Warrick asked, as he shot an uncertain glance at Sapphire, knowing whenever she was involved in a 'how much do you love me' case, it was something either very good, or traumatizing.  
  
Catherine shook her head. "You wanna tell him, Detective Brown?"  
  
Both Warrick and Sapphire looked at her and said, "Huh?"  
  
"Detective SAPPHIRE Brown..." Catherine rolled her eyes.  
  
"Sure!" Sapphire smiled. "WE know someone else who wore the infamous jacket..."  
  
"Who?" Nick, Eric and Warrick shot up, all excited, and hoping to know who else's DNA to look for.  
  
Sapphire sighed, and looked at Nick. "You're not gonna be too happy with this, Detective Stokes..."  
  
(AN: I'm making it as suspenseful as I possibly can!)  
  
~~  
  
Grissom stood genuflect over the spot he had just covered with luminol, examining for very bright areas, which showed where the most blood or DNA was. "Hey! Detective Hunter," Grissom signaled for Shawn to hand him a q- tip.  
  
Shawn looked up from the spot on the wall he was spraying with luminol, and brought a q-tip to Grissom. "Whoa..." Shawn looked at the bright-electric- blue spot. "It looks like most of the bleeding was done there...maybe we'd be better off just cutting that piece of the carpet off, and bringing it back to the lab?"  
  
"You're becoming a regular Horatio Caine..." Grissom flashed Shawn a rare, pride-filled smile. The only other person to see that type of smile was Kendall.  
  
"Thanks..." Shawn smiled at Grissom, and then glanced around the room. Suddenly, his eyes focused on a spot on the floor. "Grissom..." he walked toward the center of the room, right where Kendall had been standing.  
  
"What?" Grissom followed Shawn, curious.  
  
"Look...a spot of blood...this could be either Kendall's, Minkus' or the killer's..." Shawn pointed to a very small red spot.  
  
"It also could be red paint..." Grissom explained. "These walls were red before they were painted white..."  
  
"Should I collect it, just in case?" Shawn knelt down.  
  
"Sure..." Grissom nodded in approval. "Good work, Shawn..."  
  
"Thanks, Gil..." Shawn snipped off the piece of rug, and put it into a plastic baggie.  
  
~~  
  
Jack paced the floor, knowing that either Shawn or Eric would call and tell him something. He glanced over toward Christina. "You seem strangely calm..." he was curious.  
  
Christina shrugged. "I know Kendall is fine. Just like I told Sapph...she's tougher than any other girl I know...she can survive a lot."  
  
"Yeah, I know she's tough, and I know she'll be fine, but don't you want justice for Minkus' killer?" he asked, flashing her a worried look.  
  
"Justice will be served..." she shrugged. "After all...Grissom and his team are on the case..."  
  
Jack leaned against the wall. "I know, I just can't wait until this stiff is behind bars for good..." 


End file.
